Statistics Help for Your Dissertation

If you are a doctoral
student and you are working on your Dissertation Proposal or
Results section, I am
qualified to help you with the statistical aspects of your study and I am
prepared to work to your schedule. I have a Masters degree in probability and statistics and I have been
employed full-time as a professional
Statistical Consultant since 1993.

I am generally available 7 days/week between the hours of 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM
CST to take your calls or answer
your emails. I welcome you to
review my credentials and browse this web site for
more information about me and the services I offer.

Get Statistics Help

When to Hire a Statistical Consultant

I would like to emphasize that the sooner you start working with a statistician during the development of your proposal, the smoother things will go for you. Once you have a topic and you have done some preliminary literature review is an ideal time to start working with a statistician.
So many doctoral students contact me only after multiple rewrites of the problem statement, research questions, data analysis plan etc. They could have saved themselves a lot of time, money and frustration by contacting a statistician sooner.

In addition, many doctoral students come to me only after they have a fully approved proposal. Often times, a proposal is accepted even though the statistics are not clearly written and sometimes, their statistics are just plain wrong. This can happen if you don’t have someone with an advanced degree in statistics on your committee. When that happens, I am often unable to do the analysis because it would be so much work to fix the problems that the project becomes cost prohibitive to the student.

About Statisticians and Statistical Consulting

A true statistician has a formal academic degree in statistics. Many universities offer degrees in statistics, from Bachelor’s, Master’s to Doctorate. Many doctoral level statisticians either work as professors or work in the pharmaceutical industry. I have a Master’s degree in Applied Probability and Statistics and I have been employed full-time as a professional statistician since 1993. I worked in academic medical research for 10 years before starting my own statistical consulting business. Now, my fulltime job is providing statistical consulting services to doctoral students throughout the United States, Canada and parts of Europe. You can read more about my credentials here.

I have worked with dozens of doctoral students who came to me only after they paid someone else to assist with their statistics, only to find out that the statistics were not accepted by their committee. The person that assisted the doctoral student turned out not to be a statistician at all. Many people call themselves a statistician, or statistics consultant, even though they don't have an advanced degree in statistics. The Consultant was unable to solve the problem and did not return the client's money. Not only that, it resulted in the doctoral student missing the scheduled defense date requiring an extra semester's tuition. I have worked for hundreds of doctoral students in a consultative/tutoring capacity and not one of them has had their statistics rejected by their committee, plus, I offer a money back guarantee (except of course in the event of my incapacitation or death!) that you will receive the proper statistics, you will fully understand the statistics, and your committee will accept them.

Statistical consultants should be adept at explaining statistics in a way that the client can understand. However, many statistical consultants either have poor English language skills or speak in terms that are too technical for many clients. I consistently receive high compliments for my ability to explain statistics in a way that is easy to understand. I am very patient and I take whatever time is necessary for you to fully understand your statistics. I guarantee that after you have finished working with me you will thoroughly understand the statistical considerations we collaborated on.

Quantitative research help for your Doctoral Dissertation

The typical quantitative dissertation usually involves major use of statistics. All of my clients are involved with either a mixed-methods or purely quantitative dissertation. Many of my clients come to me after they have already completed their introduction chapter and literature review chapter. Some have started their methods chapter and then became stuck on the statistical aspects (e.g. research questions, hypotheses, survey instrument, sampling strategy, statistical methods, sample size). Some of my clients first come to me after their methods chapter has already been completed and approved by their committee and they have completed their data collection. Sometimes these clients have problems with the statistical considerations of their methods chapter, even though their methods chapter has been accepted by their committee. I then advise these clients of the problems and make suggestions for fixing the problems. Once the statistical considerations of the methods chapter are properly written, approved by the committee, and the data collection has been completed, then the statistical consultation enters into the data analysis phase.

Challenges facing Doctoral Students and how a Statistical consultant can help

Many of my clients have a fulltime job and a family while they are trying to complete their dissertation. So they have a lot of time pressure and stress in their life. They are often trying to meet a deadline to submit their Dissertation Proposal or Results chapter so time is usually of the essence to them. Additionally, cost is a big issue with them because they donít make a lot of money, they have a family to support, and they have spent a fortune on their education and have a huge school loan to repay. They often feel totally lost when it comes to statistics. They usually have had a course in statistics several years ago and have since forgotten most of it. They are afraid that the statistical aspects of their dissertation are going to cause them to fail, they donít know how they can ever get it right, let alone defend tough questions from their committee about the statistics.

There is sort of an adversarial relationship between the student and their committee. The committee wants the student to learn, so they wonít just give the student an easy answer to their question, they want the student to study and figure things out. The student often has trouble getting a straight answer from their committee in general, and specifically when it comes to questions about statistics. The committee is usually slow to respond to the studentís emails and phone calls, which is very frustrating to the student.

Most of my clients did not even realize statistical consultants existed. Their committee members are often slow to suggest hiring a statistical consultant and my client often just stumbles upon my web site while trying to find helpful information about statistics on the Internet. Once a doctoral student discovers that there are statistical consultants out there, their concerns often become:

Dissertation Proposal Statistics Consultation

When a doctoral student is working on their dissertation proposal, a qualified statistical consultant can advise and tutor the doctoral student with regards to matters such as their problem statement, purpose of the study, research questions, hypotheses, data analysis plan, sample size justification and more. This helps the doctoral student refine their dissertation while enriching their understanding of statistics at the same time. Although statistics consulting is sometimes offered within the doctoral studentís university, statisticians in academia are often too busy to spend sufficient time to fully meet the doctoral studentís needs.

That's when consulting with a qualified statistician outside the university can be helpful. The statistical consulting that I provide is very much a learning opportunity for the doctoral student. I collaborate with my clients and explain statistics during the process. As I gather information about your topic, questionnaires/instruments and research questions, I advise you on pros and cons of various approaches to your research questions, independent and dependent variables, and other statistical considerations. Once we are in agreement on these statistical considerations, then I write a written report detailing all of the statistical considerations that we collaborated on for your Dissertation Proposal.

This includes discussion of your research questions, hypotheses, quantitative descriptions of your independent and dependent variables, data analysis plan and power analysis to justify your sample size. Once I deliver this report to you, you will receive unlimited email and phone support to ensure that you fully understand the information. Then, after you have integrated the information into your proposal, I will review your proposal to insure the integrity of the statistical information. Then, once you have submitted your proposal to your committee, if your committee members should have any questions or comments about the statistics, you will have access to me for advice/tutoring on why they might have asked those questions and I'll advise you how best to respond.

Choosing the right statistic

One of the purposes of the dissertation proposal is to make it clear to the committee that your research questions can actually be answered using statistics. In other words, it is necessary to specify which statistic will be used to answer the research question. The choice of which statistic to use depends upon how the question is stated and how the independent and dependent variables are measured. When you hire me to help you with the statistical aspects of your dissertation proposal, I will tutor you on the statistical concepts that will insure that your research questions and independent and dependent variables will lend themselves well to statistical analysis so that the proper statistic can be selected.

Results Chapter Statistics Consult

Once the doctoral student's dissertation proposal has been fully approved by their committee and the IRB, the next steps are data collection and analysis. I recommend you consult with your statistician about how best to enter/format the data. The data need to be formatted (entered into the computer) in a certain way in order to lend themselves well to statistical analysis. Once the data have been properly entered into the computer, the researcher usually delivers the data to me via email attachment. I then import the data into the statistical analysis software (I use the professional version of the SPSS software) in order to perform the statistical data analysis.

The statistical data analysis service I offer for your results chapter includes analyzing the data with SPSS, putting the resulting tables and graphs into a word document and providing a written narrative report that demonstrates how to interpret and report the results. Although I don't provide point-and-click tutorials on how to use SPSS, many of my clients use my written results as a sort of "grading tool", and they perform the analysis themselves and compare their results against mine to gain confidence in their understanding of the data analysis. With my service you also get unlimited email and phone support after I have delivered the results to insure that you fully understand the results. Additionally, if your committee members should have any questions about your statistics, I include a money-back guarantee that I will be able to advise/tutor you on their questions and advise/tutor you on how to respond to them until the data analysis results are accepted.

SPSS Help

When you hire me to perform the statistical analysis of your data, I will advise/tutor you on how best to enter your data, or, if you have collected your data on-line using a tool such as SurveyMonkey, I can download the data for you. I will then perform all of the appropriate data analyses using the the professional version of the SPSS software. Getting my help with SPSS can help you better understand how to interpret and report your results, so you will be learning more and it is likely you will save time and frustration.

Benefits of working with a qualified Statistician

Here are some things many of my satisfied clients say that they like about me and my services:

1. You are an excellent teacher, you really explain things well, you make it so easy for me to understand what the statistics mean.

2. You are so prompt at taking my phone calls and answering my emails.

3. Your turn-around time is excellent.

4. Your rates are reasonable and worth every penny.

5. You are very patient, I know that I am bad in statistics, you really took your time explaining things to me and you never got upset if I was slow to catch on.

6. You are a great motivator, when I was struggling with my study you had a very calm and soothing voice and manner of speaking, you really put me at ease.

7. You have a lot of great suggestions and ideas about how to simplify my study.

8. You have a very professional and yet personable and friendly manner.

9. You are extremely helpful.

10. You have excellent communication skills.

What you will get from Statistically Significant Consulting, LLC

You will get the statistics help/tutoring you need to successfully complete your dissertation.

I have helped hundreds of doctoral students in developing their research questions, hypotheses, survey design, data analysis plan, power analysis and sample size justification, and performing the statistical analysis of their data.

You will receive a clearly written report that demonstrates how to interpret and report the results as well as unlimited email and phone support to answer any questions you might have, to insure that you completely understand the statistics.

I have a Masterís degree in statistics and I have been employed full-time as a professional statistician since 1993. Among all of the doctoral students I have worked with (hundreds), I have a 100% success rate in providing the appropriate statistics for their proposal and results chapter.

You will receive a 100% money back guarantee (except of course in the event of my incapacitation or death) that you will receive the proper statistics, you will completely understand the statistical methods and results I provide and your committee will approve the statistics.

I pride myself on providing outstanding customer support, quick turn-around time and affordable pricing. I am generally available 7 days/week between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM Central Time to take your calls and answer your emails.

The entire consultation process takes place via phone and email. The first step is for you to send me an email (or call) to tell me if you are working on your proposal or results chapter. I will ask you a few brief questions about your study and then I will provide you with a quote and turn-around time. The quote will fully detail the extent of services I will provide, what it will cost, and how long it will take me to finish.